Some Changes

Over the last several years we have been trying to eat a lot more healthy and do more physical exercise. We stopped eating fast food a long time ago and started cutting out junk food and I’ve learned to make a lot of things home made and quit buying things premade. But more recently…in the last couple of years or so things have really turned around. I’ve learned to make home made bone broth (chicken, beef, fish) and it’s changed the taste of soups extremely. Makes me wonder why I ever bought that nasty stuff from the store. We’ve incorporated a lot more veggies as well. About 6-7 months ago, Glorianna and I went to the allergy doctor to get tested. She had been having a lot of nose bleeds and headaches so I thought it was worth the tests to find out what was causing them. Turns out that she’s allergic to almost anything outside…and animals. blah. I’m close behind her but don’t have animal allergies. These aren’t just in the spring either…that’s the worse but it’s pretty much year round. Of course the doctors wanted us to take shots. Lots and lots of shots. They suggested I take 1 a week and Glorianna 2 a week for about 4-5 years and then possibly slow down to every other week after that. What a pain! So after doing some praying and lots of research we decided on a different approach.

There’s a diet out there called the GAPS diet. It’s a “heal your gut” diet that then “heals the rest of you”. The basic run down is that by going on this diet you get rid of the bad bacteria in your stomach and intestines there for replacing it with good bacteria that will send the nutrients your body needs to the places they need to go. It’s seems like a lot of work but the more we try it the easier it becomes.

Lots of bone broth.

Take a probiotic every day.

You aren’t supposed to have any grains…that’s the hardest part….unless they are sprouted grain or sour dough. I’ve learned to make both of these. I bought some sprouted grain flour and a sour dough starter and I’ve been whipping up bread and pancakes and waffles which are fantastic! But not all of the time. I don’t wanna go crazy with it. The kids eat a lot of cereal so I’m really looking for ways to replace that. Cereal is a big no no on this diet too.

We haven’t totally given up pasta or potatoes yet either. We just eat more sweet potatoes than white potatoes and switched to brown rice and multigrain pasta instead of wheat. I’m not sure if we will every actually give that stuff up totally, but it’s helped to switch to a healthier version anyway.

There’s a lot more to it than just that tho. Your aren’t supposed to have any sugar unless it honey or pure natural maple syrup. No starch. No canned anything. We’ve changed a lot but haven’t cut out everything yet. It’s too hard and expensive to just switch cold turkey. But we’ve changed a lot!

New things we’ve tried and grown to love:
Keifer
Kombucha (we are currently learning to make our own)
Sour dough bread, waffles, pancakes, biscuits…etc
Sprouted Grain Flour takes the place of other flours just fine.
Keifer popsicles (keifer, fruit and honey…blend together and freeze) kids love them!

I’ve also learned to make my own coffee creamer. mmm…quite nice. I can now have any flavor I want, whenever I want.

We also spend a lot more time at the store buying fresh fruit and veggies so we don’t have to get canned, but it’s worth it to me. I can’t wait until its warm enough to start our garden.

The kids aren’t as on board with it as I am and Trevor is very supportive and loves the stuff I make but still has his bad food cravings . ha ha. They are all coming around nicely tho. Glorianna is the worse. She’s might fighter. I keep trying to tell her it’s for her own good and it’s much better than shots. Of course she agrees but then still doesn’t want to eat what I tell her she has to eat. sigh…but we’ll get there. The hardest part is getting them to stick with the “No bad food” rule when we aren’t at home. But I realize they’re kids and it’s hard for them to resist bad food, so I just keep feeding them good food when they are home.

We’ve gotten rid of all types of crackers and chips and that kind of thing. So when the kids get the munchies, they’ve learned to eat fruit, veggies and keifer pops. I’m still looking for new recipes and Trevor finds a lot of books at the library with recipes in them so I’m finally getting a new list together to replace a lot of our old favorites.

Now if I can just learn to make ice cream! That’ll cure Trevor’s bad food craving. haha

I’ve already noticed a huge difference in myself. I usually get 3-4 sinus infections in a year and I have headaches regularly. But lately…. I haven’t had a sinus infection is almost a year and my headaches have dropped a lot!! I’m really looking forward to the day when Glorianna’s nose bleeds and headaches stop completely. Spring is just a round the corner so we’ll see how she does.

So on we go to bigger and better things! It’s not really a diet if you think about it. It’s just an improvement on the good things we already have! =) Let the improvements continue!!